Thrifty Scissors

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Four Different Varieties of Pottery

Three of the most common varieties of pottery are Earthenware, Stoneware, and Chinaware or Porcelain and one far less common is Micaceous clay pottery made famous by Pueblo Native American potters.

Earthenware, which includes all of the coarser grades, from the ordinary stoneware, of which jugs and crocks are made, to the heavier grades used for culinary and table purposes. Earthenware is undoubtedly the earliest, form of pottery, and rude articles are found among' all uncivilized people.

Stoneware, a high grade of earthenware. The term is often applied to numerous varieties in most common use. It is hard, well enameled and often beautifully decorated.

Chinaware or Porcelain, the finest grade of pottery. It is made by mixing' the best quality of kaolin with a Chinese clay containing' a little silica. When fused at a high temperature these ingredients produce a beautiful translucent ware. Porcelain originated with the Chinese, hence the name china, or chinaware. It is known to have been manufactured as early as 950 b. c. Prom China and Japan come the most delicate and beautiful specimens of this Chinaware.

The manufacture of china was introduced into Europe early in the sixteenth century, and numerous establishments now exist both on the Continent and in England. The oldest and best known of these is near Dresden. Saxony, and from this city the ware has taken its name. Dresden china has attained wide popularity and is prized for its excellent quality and beautiful finish.

My favorite pottery is made by Native American potters.

Above is a video describing Micaceous clay Pueblo pottery.

Firing, Glazing and Decorating

Molds made of plaster of Paris for ceramics class.

Vessels that are not round are usually cast in molds, made of plaster of Paris, each half of the vessel being made separately and the parts joined together when taken from the molds.

Pottery is burned, baked or fired in kilns, which vary in size and shape according to the sort of ware for which they are designed. The higher grades of ware are placed in cylindrical earthen boxes, called saggers. The saggers are stacked in the kiln by packing in tiers, one above the other. The ware is usually raised to a white heat, which is maintained for thirty-six hours or more, after which the kiln is allowed to cool slowly. When cold, the ware is taken from the saggers, and in this state it is called biscuit. The rough places on the surface are now smoothed, and other finishing touches are given, after which the ware is glazed.

The process of glazing is accomplished by dipping the ware in a mixture called the slip. This is a solution of the glazing substance in water and is but little thicker than milk. The ware is dipped in, and on being removed, it is so handled that no drops are left standing on the surface. The porous walls absorb the water and leave a thin coating on the surface, which, on a second firing, passes into the clay and forms the glaze. By the addition of necessary pigments, coloring can also be produced with the glaze. When this is poured on and allowed to ran down until stopped by the heat, beautifully shaded effects are often produced.

Decorations are usually put on with a brush, either before or after glazing. If decorated after glazing, the ware must be fired a third time. Decorating requires great care and skill, as the colors, when put on, are entirely different from those which will appear after firing. For instance, gold is put

on in the form of a chloride which has a brown color.

Applying a slip to a pot by Bill Gilder.

How a potter works his or her clay...

The first step in making pottery is to grind the clay to a very fine powder, which is mixed with water into a dough-like mass. In the manufacture of ordinary stoneware, a quantity of this dough sufficient for the vessel is attached to a horizontal wheel called the potter's wheel, which is worked by foot power. The workman forms the clay into a cone with a blunt apex. Then by inserting his thumbs into the apex of the cone and revolving the wheel, he roughly shapes the vessel with his hand. After this, the walls are pared and smoothed inside and out by tools of wood or leather. During the working, the clay, tools, and hands of the workmen are kept moist. When shaped, the vessel is placed in the drying room, where it is allowed to harden, after which it is ready for burning.

Fine potter, Emily Reason, demonstrates "working the clay"

Varieties of Clay and Glazes

Pottery is made of various grades of clay, to which sometimes small proportions of fine sand, powdered feldspar or flint are added, the kind and proportion of these ingredients determining the sort of ware.

Ceramic Wares & Bodies

Clays that contain any appreciable quantity of iron turn red when burned, as in the making of brick, and much of the coarsest grade of earthenware is made of this kind of clay. Other varieties turn to a cream color, and others become a reddish-brown. The finest quality of clay used for pottery is known as kaolin and is pure white. Some varieties of clay contain enough sand to make the glaze or enamel, but for most wares this must be added. The glaze is made by different substances for different wares. That of stoneware, such as common jugs and crocks, is made by throwing common salt into the furnace, where it is decomposed and fuses with the clay. Other varieties of stoneware are glazed by a mixture of white lead, flint and glass ground together; while porcelain is glazed by still another composition.

Glazing your ceramics.

The Buster Brown Index

Richard Felton Outcault.

Richard Felton Outcault was born on January 14, 1863 and died on September 25, 1928. He was the American cartoonist who created the series The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown, and he is considered a key pioneer of the modern comic strip.

Richard Outcault introduced Buster Brown to the pages of the Herald on May 4, 1902, about a mischievous, well-to-do boy dressed in Little Lord Fauntleroy style, and his pit-bull terrier Tige. The strip and characters were more popular than the Yellow Kid, and Outcault licensed the name for a wide number of consumer products, such as children's shoes from the Brown Shoe Company. In 1904 he sold advertising licenses to 200 companies at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Journalist Roy McCardell reported in 1905 that Outcault earned $75,000 a year from merchandising and employed two secretaries and a lawyer. Read more...

Artifacts About the Buster Brown Cartoons:

Mosaic & Collage Index


Read more about "Ricardo Cat" at my new art repository.

The invention of Mosaic may perhaps be attributed to the Romans. They used it to pave their buildings and cover their walls. The Byzantines, however, made popular, under the name of "opus Groecum," or "Groenieum," a kind of mosaic composed of little cubes in clay and in colored and gold glass. This process must have been used at Cordova, for the ceiling of the mosque, for instance; it prevailed in the early stages of Arabic art. It is presumed that these mosaics are the work of several Andalusian artists, although originally they were executed in old buildings by Greek workmen, steeped in Byzantine traditions. In the same sense may be considered the marvellous mosaics of the Koubbet-es-Sakhra, in Jerusalem.

In Egypt, in Arabic period, mosaic was made in two ways. It consisted of small marble cubes applied to a mortar bed, or of various pieces of marble fixed in a single piece which formed the background of the work. The latter method resembles inlay work. The marbles which were most frequently used in the mosaics of Cairo were red, yellow, black and white.

Collage is a technique using magazine and newspaper clippings, ribbons, paint, bits of colored or handmade papers, portions of other artwork or texts, photographs and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper or canvas. The origins of collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but this technique made a dramatic reappearance in the early 20th century as an art form of novelty. It is the hands on method most often used by art teachers in America to teach students about mosaic art because it may be used to demonstrate similar design principles used in both applications.

For this same purpose I have combined these two art practices under the same index.

Artifacts Representing Both Mosaic and Collage Applications:

Mosaic and Collage Projects from Art Education Daily:

More Featured Collage/Mosaic Arts and Crafts:

Weaving Index

A Jacquard Loom, was invented by Joseph
Marie Jacquard in 1804.

       Weaving, the art of making cloth by means of a loom, from threads or yarn. It is not known when weaving was first practiced, but it is certain that it is one of the earliest of the arts, and it seems probable that hand looms were invented independently by several of the ancient nations. The Greeks and Romans brought the weaving art to a high degree of perfection. Among modern countries Italy was the first to acquire fame for the manufacture of woolen and cotton cloths. France, England, Germany and the United States later developed extensive weaving industries. Since the fibers of wool are much more easily worked than are those of cotton or flax, woolen cloth has always been made among the more primitive peoples before they attempted fabrics of linen or cotton.
       In weaving, two sets of threads are necessary, one running lengthwise of the cloth, and called the warp, the other running crosswise, and called the weft, or woof. The threads of the warp are arranged on the loom by being wound on a yarn beam, at the back, and stretched evenly to the front, where they are fastened to another beam, upon which the cloth is to be wound. In passing from one beam to the other, the warp threads are laid through the heckles and also through a comb on the batten. In laying the warp, every other thread passes through one heckle, and the alternate thread passes through the other. The weft is wound upon bobbins, which are placed in the shuttle, by means of which the weft is laid in position. Weaving by hand loom includes the following steps: (1) Pressing a treadle, which is connected with the heckles by a cord that passes over a pulley on the top of the loom. This spreads the threads of the weft, raising one-half and lowering the others, so that they form an angle called the shed. (2) Throwing the shuttle across the warp and thus laying the thread of the weft in position. (3) Striking this thread with the batten, so as to drive it close up against the one previously laid. (4) Springing, down the opposite treadle and thus preparing the web for the nest thread of the weft.
       Weaving in these times is almost exclusively done by power looms, operated by steam or electricity. Simple as the hand loom is, it contains the elements of all modern looms. The complexity of the pattern may be increased by placing more than two frames in the heckle and dividing the weft into more parts, also by inventions which raise certain threads in the warp at one time and certain others at another. An invention known as the Jacquard loom operates upon this plan. Any number of cords can be used, so that a pattern of any degree of complexity is possible, and since all cords are tied together in the form of an endless chain, the pattern may be repeated indefinitely.

Weaving Artifacts for Teachers:

More Information and Ideas at Art Education Daily:

More Weaving Crafts from Easter Egg Crafts Blog:

Page last updated October 11th, 2017

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